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I amerikanska Nation hittar man ofta oerhört skarpa och välskrivna artiklar.

William P. Jones gör till exempel en historisk tillbakablick, när han skriver i artikeln ”Obama’s New Deal” om en del av de utmaningar som amerikansk ekonomi står inför:

Despite conservatives' alarm about "the slippery slope to socialism," Franklin Roosevelt displayed a strong aversion to direct control over the economy. Instead, his administration relied on civil society groups to implement and enforce government policies. Rather than impose wage and price regulations to stabilize the economy, for example, the National Recovery Administration allowed business associations to establish standards and then empowered unions to enforce them. That unprecedented mobilization of civil society sowed the seeds for the industrial union movement, which proved critical to Roosevelt's re-election in 1936 and deepened his commitment to social democratic reform in the late 1930s and early '40s.

Läs hela! Och läs också Eric Altermans briljanta och roliga ”These Are Better Days”:

Listen, people, Obama will disappoint us. That's part of the job description. But somehow, our nutty political system has produced a president who is to politics what Duke Ellington was to an orchestra and a recording studio, what Muhammad Ali was to a boxing ring (and an empty microphone) and what Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still are to 80,000 people in a football stadium. How wonderful to have our faith in the very idea of hope fully restored in this way, following eight years of full-throated fearmongering in the service of nothing but cronyism, corruption, ignorance and arrogance. How empowering to learn that the Bush/neocon vision of America has been signed, sealed and delivered to the ash heap of history.

What makes it so much more satisfying is that it took place in the face of a decades-long drumbeat--begun by conservatives but echoed in the MSM--that liberals by definition cannot be patriots. We don't care enough about NASCAR. We shop at Zabar's. We prefer Fellini to idiots ranting about "feminazis" on the radio or demanding invasions of this or that Arab country on TV. Well, who's "anti-American" now, Bub?

Läs hela!